broomcorn

noun

broom·​corn ˈbrüm-ˌkȯrn How to pronounce broomcorn (audio)
ˈbru̇m-
: any of several tall cultivated sorghums having stiff-branched panicles used in brooms and brushes

Examples of broomcorn in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Archaeologists analyzing pottery vessels found evidence of ingredients such as barley and broomcorn millet. Literary Hub, 12 June 2025 Another key finding was the introduction of broomcorn millet to people’s diet at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Stephanie Edwards, Discover Magazine, 10 June 2025 Hermann residents replaced the grapes with broomcorn, and Stone Hill Winery turned its cellars into mushroom farms. Alex Mayyasi, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Nov. 2023 Major innovation didn’t come to broom-making until the late 18th century, when farmers in the United States began growing a variety of sorghum, a stiff-stemmed grain known as broomcorn. Kate Morgan, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2023 By the first half of the 1800s, farmers across the Northeast and throughout Appalachia were growing broomcorn, and the American broom-making industry was booming. Kate Morgan, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2023 This places the initial stages of cannabis’ domestication in a time and place that is already known as a hotbed of agricultural innovations—where modern crops including rice, broomcorn and foxtail millet, soybean, foxnut, apricot and peach were launched. Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 July 2021 Commercial broomcorn farming has been based in Mexico since the 1980s. Liz Logan, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Oct. 2020 By 1850, sorghum brooms had earned the grain a new name: broomcorn. Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics, 23 May 2016

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1782, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of broomcorn was circa 1782

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Cite this Entry

“Broomcorn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/broomcorn. Accessed 29 Jun. 2025.

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